What inspires you?

[highlandscenics]

Before I started my interest in photography, I used to go hill wallking and mountain climbing with my Dad in the West Coast of Scotland....I started to take a camera and would take landscape shots from the tops of mountains...this fired my passion and kicked off my love of photography. I used to take hundreds of landscapes, but then my interest diverted old ruins and bridges.

Now I am inspired by nature at "arms length" I love taking macros of flowers and plants. Also I have been drawn to the beauty of water, those of you who have seen my portfolio will see its full of rivers But its not the whole river, stream, burn or waterfall I go for....I have this "knack" for targeting a certain area of it. I just love the sound, sight and flow of water, especially over objects such as rocks and branches. Its very calming to be beside a small babbling stream or a raging torrent of white water.

I wonder what started you lot off in photography and indeed, what inspires you today?

[KeithT]

I started out with a love for the moving image. Black and white French films (not the sexy kind) of the 50s and early 60s inspired me. One film in particular was the Red Balloon, for which the concept and cinematography still inspires me to this day. Soon after leaving school I trained as a film projectionist, working my way up to Chief and later working at Elstree Studios. I left the industry in 1975 to work for myself.

I still love the moving image to this day, but it it isn't the same as it once was. I have been taking still images since 1991 and even though digital these days I'm still inspired by the old b/w movie film image along with a ton of stuff by all the Magnum family.

[GerryBateson]

I began when a computer upgrade included a free camera. I used it for taking ebay photos and quickly realised its potential. Then I was hooked.

now I will photograph anything that takes my eye. I like to wander around and look then look some more.

[duncan22]

I Have always been interested in photography. I think the main reason in my teens was that a photograph could freeze a moment in time. How often do you get old photographs out and think back to the time it was taken and the memories it brings back. Funny when you look at old photographs from years ago you don't think, that's not sharp enough or it could be cropped better, in short the pleasure is in the content.
During most of my working life (apart from holidays) photography took a back seat simply because it was a hobby to expensive for me but since the advent of Digital photography I have never looked back and get considerable pleasure from combining my main hobby of Fell Walking in the Lake District with that of Photography !